Text Sushi by Alf Rehn

Embedded Video

For quite a few academics, the year is divided into seasons. You have conference season, which is for travel and networking (and the odd drinking binge). You have teaching season, which is murder. You have writing season (AKA the holidays). Right now we’re in a liminal season - conference-season-planning season. This is when the abstracts and the papers have to be written, the conferences decided upon, and so on. In the last weeks my inbox has been awash in various invitations, reminders, deadline extensions and so on. I still haven’t decided. I’ll do SCOS (as it’s my homie, Dr. O’Doherty that’s running that particular freakshow). I may do AoM (don’t worry if you don’t get the abbreviations, it’s not very important). I may do EGOS. I may not. But what should one do with the pre-workshops, the in-between-workshops, the fun little thing in May? Not a very serious problem, I admit, but it is one. At least for us academics.

According to the New York Magazine, the spa industry is red hot. And why not? In an age of where you can buy any technical gadget you desire, it only follows that high-touch should become sought-after as well. With the world speeding up, I’d bet on any business that has slowing down and simple pleasures at its core. In fact, I feel like a massage and a face treatment right now, and I’d be prepared to pay for it as well. Professional services that communicate on several levels manage to go beyond the simple commodity, and the spa might well be a metaphor for future of consumption. Just ask Marcus Lindahl, who is never too broke for a manicure.

The always dependable David Armano has delivered another brilliant post, this time on Developing an Experience Strategy in 4 Parts. Too few people realize that experiences and entertainment need to be thought of and planned as rigorously (if not more so) than other, more common business processes. With all the talk of  the creative economy, one too often acts as if this was simply a case of throwing some pixie dust called “creativity” onto the existing organization, with no need to think through the logic(s) and the new processes this would require. This is why so many projects that are supposed to enhance creativity and innovation ultimately fail.